Week One Content

• Foundations: The competent teacher understands the philosophical, historical, and legal foundations of special education.

Week Two Content

• Characteristics of Learners: The competent teacher understands how disabilities impact the cognitive, physical, emotional, social and communication development of an individual and provides opportunities that support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.
• Assessment: The competent teacher understands the educational assessment process and uses various assessment strategies to support the continuous development of all students (ages 3-21).
• Planning for Instruction: The competent teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners. The teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based on knowledge of the discipline, students, community, and curriculum goals.

Week Three Content

• Learning Environment: The competent teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
• Instructional Delivery: The competent teacher understands the central concepts and methods of inquiry; uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills; and creates learning experiences that make content meaningful to all student (ages 3 – 21).

Week Four Content

• Collaborative Relationships: The competent teacher uses knowledge of effective written, verbal, and visual communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction among professionals, parents, paraprofessionals, and students.
• Professional Conduct and Leadership: The competent teacher understands teaching as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve students’ learning and well-being.
• Reflection and Professional Growth: The competent teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.

The EDL539 traditional course wiki is found here. It is the final exam question set that EDL students worked to master. You may occasionally find it useful to consider some of the same content from the administrator's perspective. The previously enrolled students created a wikibook to demonstrate their learning. You may view their work, borrow the resources and use these as exemplars for your wiki project.

Internal Links for Sp Ed Module

External Links for Sp Ed Module

Course Assignments and Evaluation for Sp Ed Module

Sherrard Special Education Wiki Book